Discovery of fortified gate strengthens claim ruins belong to lost city of Goliath

IT was an Iron Age city. It had a monumental fortified gate. But are the ruins now being excavated in Israel that of the lost city of Gath — the home of biblical giant Goliath?

Ancient evidence ... Aren Maeir, Professor of Archaeology at the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, with a Philistine alter. Source: Supplied

IT was an Iron Age city. It had a monumental fortified gate. But are the ruins now being excavated in Israel that of the lost city of Gath — the home of biblical giant Goliath?

The site is not new: It’s been the subject of various excavations since 1899.

What is new is the realisation of the full extent of the ruins. It’s only in the past 20 or so years that it has been revealed to be an expansive city — not a fort as originally thought.

News_Image_File: Excavation pits at the site between Jerusalem and Ashkelon. Source: Professor Aren Maeir.

“We knew that Philistine Gath in the tenth to ninth century (BCE) was a large city, perhaps the largest in the land at that time,” excavation leader Professor Aren Maeir told Live Science. “These monumental fortifications stress how large and mighty this city was.”

Archaeologists have been scouring the former Holy Land — now divided between the warring states of Palestine and Israel — for evidence of biblical stories for centuries.

News_Rich_Media: Virtual flyover of Gath

So there is no surprise that such a link has been drawn to these structures — in the Judaean Foothills, about halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon — which have been dated between 2900 and 3000 years old. The ruins show evidence of continuous settlement from the 5th millennium BCE.

Excavators from Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv — as well as a team from the University of Melbourne — have identified the rubble of Tell es-Safi as belonging to one of five city states belonging to Israel’s ancient foes, the Philistines.

News_Image_File: The remains of the Iron Age wall attributed to the Philistine city of Gath. Source: Professor Aren Maeir

Gath is described in biblical stories as being the home of the famous warrior Goliath — whom a young David slew by slingshot before becoming king of Israel.

The recently discovered gate — described as among the largest ever found in Israel — proves the city being excavated was one of the most powerful in the region, Professor Maeir said in a university statement. Other structures include a temple, an iron foundry and a heavily fortified wall.

“These features, and the city itself were destroyed by Hazael King of Aram Damascus, who besieged and destroyed the site at around 830 BCE,” Professor Maeir says.

News_Image_File: Remains of Iron Age fortifications in the lower city section of the Philistine city of Gath. Source: Professor Aren Maeir.

He says the city gate is the same as mentioned in the biblical story of I Samuel 21, where David escapes from King Saul to the King of Gath — but has second thoughts about his refuge.

12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Previous excavations, made over a 20-year-period by the Ackerman Family Bar-Ilan University Expedition, have also uncovered two of the oldest Philistine inscriptions ever found. They’re said to contain two names similar to that of Goliath.

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